Friday, 17 December 2010

Motherhood Steve, who while trumpeting his maternal health initiative couldn't be bothered to show up at an international conference on women timed to bolster those very efforts. Not only did he not attend as invited with his (poor) wife, he didn't even bother to reply to the invitation.

Motherhood Steve, who initially excluded family planning from said vaunted initiative (and of course excluded abortion too), after a shit-storm of scathing punditry was forced to walk it back a little to show the world he wasn't a total and complete asshole.

Motherhood Steve, whose religion is perceived to be something of a tiny problemo by Third-World, non-Xian women.

The former head of Canada’s aid program in Afghanistan has expressed concern that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s religious beliefs are hampering humanitarian efforts.

Speaking to the Straight from Kabul, Nipa Banerjee noted that Harper is a born-again Christian, and she argued that his religious beliefs could be adversely affecting the Canadian International Development Agency’s efforts to help Afghan women.

“It has been said that reproductive health would not be a part of the government and CIDA’s aid programs,” said Banerjee, who led CIDA’s mission in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006. “And the reproductive-health issue is a major problem in the context of Afghanistan because the maternal mortality rate is very high.”

I could go on about what a fucking great friend of women Stevie Peevie is. But we could just ask his wife about that.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is anti-choice, tried to eliminate family planning from Canada's international funding for maternal health programs, and generally speaking has adopted global health policies that will further marginalize women and girls.

For some reason, the United Nations took this to mean he would be a great candidate to co-chair a high-level commission to hold countries accountable for spending $40 billion pledged in September to improve women's health.

10 comments:

That was lazy of me. But aren't there persistent rumours that they're on the verge of a break-up, that for a while at least Laureen was living at some fancy-schmancy hotel, rumours of a very attractive female RCMP guard?

I had heard the rumour about Harpie and Laureen quite a while ago, but didn't pay much attention. However, last night at a dinner party it was confirmed by a federal civil servant, that that is indeed the buzz around Ottawa, including that she is staying in a hotel. Her defense of the Iranian woman (sorry I have forgotten her name) was certainly not something that Harpie would promote which did make me wonder if the rumours are true.

Letting him within a thousand miles of any organization ostensibly for women's rights is a monumental cock-up.